When there are 20 college students in a room together, it’s bound to be a little distracting. For Elizabethtown College fourth-year graphic design and digital media production major Sarah Moscoso, it can be more than just distracting.
Moscoso used to take her exams in a quiet room, alone, to help mitigate the negative affects her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has on her academic performance. She has academic accommodations from the College’s Disability Services Office because she gets sidetracked easily by movements and sounds, and said she found the accommodations had a positive impact on her academic performance.
Last semester, everything changed.
“With my own room, I was able to have a place that had no distractions, and was also given the space to move around and stretch out if I was getting fidgety or was having a moment of extreme hyperactivity,” Moscoso said. “Finals week was an absolute mess, and I was taking my exam in a room with 20 other individuals, and this is pretty much the equivalent of taking an exam in the classroom.”
Etown’s Disability Service office changed the way they conducted exams, instead hiring student proctors for larger study rooms that can hold 18 people. Students can have headphones in and listen to music, or bounce on exercise balls, but they still aren’t alone. For those who need text-to-speech modifications, the six single study rooms Disability Services operates are still an option.
Each of the six rooms is monitored on a grainy camera, and Director of Disability Services Lynne Davies said there’s just no way to know if a student is cheating from the cameras, and the system had to change.
“The accommodation students get is testing in a location separate from the class, not testing in a room by yourself,” Davies said.
It’s true, and all of Disability Services’ accommodations can be found on the Elizabethtown College website. It’s a large document, and Davies admits it can be confusing, but said it’s necessary to have everything in one place.
While the College is technically just following policy, Moscoso isn’t the only one who’s experienced issues with accommodations.
“I’m taking quizzes and exams with other students who have similar accommodations to me which can be just as distracting if not worse and cause more test anxiety,” fourth-year biology major Kathryn Black said. “I feel like in my experience, Etown has not been the best when it comes to accommodations.”
Black has permission to get extra time on exams, test in a different location and to record lectures on her own device. She said sometimes professors view her in a different light, and question her academic integrity because she’s recording.
A Staffing Issue
Both Black and Moscoso agree that Davies, who’s held her position for 14 years, does her job well. They also agree that she needs more support for the office to serve students well.
“There simply needs to be more staffing,” Moscoso said. “I feel like a lot of the issues students have are because there are not enough people working to have their issues addressed. Lynne [Davies] is overwhelmed and has no one to help her, and it can take up to two weeks to get a meeting with her.”
Davies is alone in her operation, although she works with Learning Zone support staff. A year ago, Tammy Longsderff held the position of Assistant Director of the Learning Zone and Disability Services, but when Longsderff retired, the position changed to only the Assistant Director of the Learning Zone, currently held by Eugene Thomas. Davies is also supported by Stephanie Rankin, Associate Dean of Students for Student Success, and Michelle Henry, Assistant Director of Academic Advising.
“I do wish I could stay on top of things better, because I feel like it’s just very hard,” Davies said. “It feels like I’m always behind on my emails, and that doesn’t feel so good.”
Davies said there are around 20% of Etown students who use some kind of accommodation and she sent out more than 200 accessibility letters to faculty this semester. That’s a lot of students, and the number is only growing because of increased enrollment at the College.
Unclear Guidelines
A main problem is that Davies doesn’t receive much feedback from anyone, students or faculty, unless there’s an issue, and even then, some students don’t feel comfortable self-advocating. During their time in K-12 institutions, many students had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which schools and teachers have to follow.
In college, much of the responsibility falls on the student.
“In K-12, all of the disability services are managed for students, but sometime between June and August [for first year students], everything switches and they have to do it for themselves,” Davies said. “In high school, students can miss a lot of classes, but in higher education, it’s only a 15-week semester and most classes meet twice a week, so if you miss 5 classes it’s pretty significant.”
That’s part of why the policies are listed on the website, so incoming students can read for themselves the policies that will apply during their time in college.
The typical age range for college, 18 to 22, is the right time for many students to get diagnosed with something that affects their accessibility accommodations. In these cases, Davies can use students’ personal history as documentation, avoiding an expensive doctor’s trip, but just because she can correctly identify student issues doesn’t mean there’s always a perfectly trodden path to follow.
One issue all Disability Services Offices across higher education experience is unclear guidelines from the government. Guidance comes from the national Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Office of Civil Rights.
“You know when it’s wrong and you always know what not to do,” Davies said. “You learn what to do by court cases and settlements, but they don’t always tell you what you should’ve done, just what you did wrong.”
The important thing from a legal standpoint is to have clear guidelines and policies to follow, and to leave a paper trail. For each student with accommodations, Davies sends a letter to the student, copying the faculty member. The letter lists accommodations the student has and issues they may face, and includes a list of what students should discuss with faculty.. Part of that letter, however, is that students can be denied accommodations if they don’t meet with faculty to talk about their accommodations, something some students just don’t do.
Solutions on the Horizon
Davies said she is always willing to meet with students to resolve issues, but she can’t help with what she doesn’t know.
That’s part of why fourth-year psychology major Evan Rich is conducting his senior research on how students with accommodations are handling their college experience. His paper will focus on different factors that affect accommodations, like stigma, difficulty with ability to self-advocate and students’ socioeconomic status, as well as the stress students with disabilities feel.
“As a student with academic accommodations and disabilities, I feel that the office [Disability Services] and the services they provide are so vital to the successes of many students like me and deserve more recognition for the vital work they do for Etown,” Rich said. “I’m hoping with the information from the study, Etown can help make the process of getting and using academic accommodation as seamless and carefree as possible for the students who rely on it for their success at Etown.”
Davies is looking forward to the study, which will be released in May.
“I sometimes wonder why students feel so uncomfortable [speaking with faculty], and that’s what I’m hoping his study will show,” Davies said.
Black and Moscoso both feel like increased staff would be helpful. Other schools similar to Etown are in the same boat. Ursinus College and Alvernia University only have a director for their Disability Services offices. Lebanon Valley College has both a director and an administrative assistant, something that could help Davies manage the influx of students.
Disability Services has hired more proctors for tests and increased the time range. Student proctors are in the Learning Zone from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and often students are alone in a large room because of the widened time range.
The bottom line for Davies is increased communication with students.
“Students do get a lot better at navigating this as they go through college,” Davies said. “Sometimes students don’t follow the timeline and email their faculty the night before, and that’s just not doable.”
She hopes Rich’s study will provide insight into how Disability Services can bridge that gap. In the meantime, she’ll keep working to ensure each student has the tools they need to perform the best they can.
